八月八日
他们……结蜘蛛网。（赛59：5）
一看到蜘蛛所结的网，就叫人想到假冒爲善之人的信仰，乃是爲了捕捉食物：蜘蛛靠着蚊蝇过活，法利赛人也有他们的报酬；愚昧人很容易被佯装相信的人所捕获，就是聪明人也在所难免；但是那些嘴里相信的人至终必会露出马脚来。习惯、名誉、称赞、进步和其他蝇类，都是假冒爲善之人的网所玩把戏。蜘蛛结网的技巧很是惊人：一看到之后就叫人钦佩这位猎夫的狡黠。教骗子的手法不也一样地令人惊异吗？他以包金的东西当纯金卖，而且令人难以分辨真僞，你看有多高明？蜘蛛的网是从自身出来的。蜜蜂从花里取蜜与蜡，蜘蛛幷不采花，但它却能从自己身体里面抽出很长很长的綫来。
假冒爲善的人也是这样依靠幷仰仗自己；他们以自己当锚，用自己的手牵綫索。他们自己立根基，自己上梁柱，不愿靠神的大恩典。然而蜘蛛的网很容易破，结得虽然好看，但是幷不耐久。它经不起仆役的扫帚，或是游人的手杖。假冒爲善之人的行径，用不到什麽精良的武器，就可以把他们的希望打得粉碎，微风一吹什麽都完了。假冒爲善之人的蛛网不久必被毁灭的扫帚扫得一干二净，这叫我们想起另一个意思：这样的蛛网是神的家所不能容留的，他必使网和结网的永归灭亡。我的心哪！你要投靠比蛛网更可靠的。愿主耶稣作你永远的隐密处。
“有火发现，这火要试验各人的工程怎样。”
August
8
“They
weave the spider’s web.” — Isaiah 59:5
See the spider’s web, and behold in it a most suggestive picture of the
hypocrite’s religion. It is meant to catch his prey: the spider fattens himself
on flies, and the Pharisee has his reward. Foolish persons are easily entrapped
by the loud professions of pretenders, and even the more judicious cannot
always escape. Philip baptized Simon Magus, whose guileful declaration of faith
was so soon exploded by the stern rebuke of Peter. Custom, reputation, praise,
advancement, and other flies, are the small game which hypocrites take in their
nets. A spider’s web is a marvel of skill: look at it and admire the cunning
hunter’s wiles. Is not a deceiver’s religion equally wonderful? How does he
make so barefaced a lie appear to be a truth? How can he make his tinsel answer
so well the purpose of gold? A spider’s web comes all from the creature’s own
bowels. The bee gathers her wax from flowers, the spider sucks no flowers, and
yet she spins out her material to any length. Even so hypocrites find their
trust and hope within themselves; their anchor was forged on their own anvil,
and their cable twisted by their own hands. They lay their own foundation, and
hew out the pillars of their own house, disdaining to be debtors to the
sovereign grace of God. But a spider’s web is very frail. It is curiously
wrought, but not enduringly manufactured. It is no match for the servant’s
broom, or the traveller’s staff. The hypocrite needs no battery of Armstrongs
to blow his hope to pieces, a mere puff of wind will do it. Hypocritical
cobwebs will soon come down when the besom of destruction begins its purifying
work. Which reminds us of one more thought, viz., that such cobwebs are not to
be endured in the Lord’s house: He will see to it that they and those who spin
them shall be destroyed for ever. O my soul, be thou resting on something
better than a spider’s web. Be the Lord Jesus thine eternal hiding-place.
